Conference 2015

Ian Straughn

Joukowsky Family Middle East Studies Librarian

Ian Straughn’s research and teaching interests focus on the emerging study of the archaeology of the Muslim World and the production of heritage in the Middle East. More specifically my work has concentrated on understanding how Muslim societies have conceptualized and constructed landscapes as cultural engagements with the material world. To this effort I have sought to develop a methodology for bringing the archaeological and textual records into a productive dialogue about past societies. As an anthropologist, this then informs my work on heritage as cultural practice and the ways in which it constitutes forms of argumentation about religious, national, and cosmopolitan identities.